These dynamics partly explain why television is so widely perceived as a postmodernist medium, or at least as a medium that contributes to the postmodernist condition, and why, within this context, intertextuality functions as a powerful vehicle of commodity formation. In this process, the newly emerging subject comes to perceive himself or herself as a gendered commodity around which a whole commercial nexus is organized--just like Garfield, the Muppet Babies, and other TV personalities with whom the child is led to identify. Further, the child comes to believe that this nexus is activated and extended whenever he or she consumes a product. In short, television teaches viewers that commercial interactivity empowers precocious consumers by enabling them to assimilate the world as they buy into the system.

Marsha Kinder
Playing with Power in Movies, Television and Video Games